In the CPG industry, packaging can arguably be more important than the product itself. The package is what the consumer first sees, touches and sometimes even smells. Packaging is what makes a consumer pick your product off the shelf. If the packaging doesn’t attract attention, you might miss opportunities for consumers to make cognitive decisions and to place your product in their shopping carts.
Add to this, is the fact that companies are under pressure to deliver an increasing number of projects in an increasingly compressed time frame. Consumers and retailers have become more demanding for products and packaging that meet their expectations. So new products, new variants, new pack sizes, market extensions, seasonal changes and promotional SKUs are happening all the time.
Revenue and margins quickly dissipate as new buying patterns emerge and more competitors enter the market. Against this backdrop, packaging and artwork management has become a very high-stakes game. Companies need better ways to manage the packaging and artworks development process and ManageArtworks fills this need.
Artwork Copy
Managing all the content that goes on an artwork in a central place is important to avoid errors and rework. Some organizations have a PLM or PIM system that manages all the product related data. However, product data is not the only content that goes onto an artwork. Marketing is constantly adding and changing the “Romance Copy” to get it just right. Also, what text should go on which component of packaging is not available anywhere else
The ManageArtworks copy manager captures all text that goes on the pack and also shows which text needs to go on which component, e.g. what should go on the front label, back label and carton. This information is not obvious to the designer and has to be spelled out based on brand and regulatory requirements
Consistency in text across product variants and across translated text is easily handled by the ManageArtworks Copy Manager. All text can be exported out in Excel and in GS1 Artwork Copy XML format. Text in copy manager can be automatically compared to text in the artwork by using ManageArtworks Copy Compare tool
Artwork Copy
Managing all the content that goes on an artwork in a central place is important to avoid errors and rework. Some organizations have a PLM or PIM system that manages all the product related data. However, product data is not the only content that goes onto an artwork. Marketing is constantly adding and changing the “Romance Copy” to get it just right. Also, what text should go on which component of packaging is not available anywhere else
The ManageArtworks copy manager captures all text that goes on the pack and also shows which text needs to go on which component, e.g. what should go on the front label, back label and carton. This information is not obvious to the designer and has to be spelled out based on brand and regulatory requirements
Consistency in text across product variants and across translated text is easily handled by the ManageArtworks Copy Manager. All text can be exported out in Excel and in GS1 Artwork Copy XML format. Text in copy manager can be automatically compared to text in the artwork by using ManageArtworks Copy Compare tool
Designing Artworks
Designers can make use of ManageArtworks Ai Plugin to connect to the Copy Manager and pull all the content directly into the plugin. As the designer drags-n-drops the text on the artwork and styles it, the plugin keeps track of the location of all the text. Whenever there is an update to the text, the plugin will identify the text that can be changed and the designer can update the text with a click of a button
For designers who don’t use the ManageArtworks Ai Plugin, an Excel or XML file with the content is available. The XML is especially useful as it can be directly mapped to placeholders in the Artwork Template
Workflows
Typical workflows implemented for a CPG company include
- New Product Artwork process
- Artwork Change process
- Print Proof approval process
- Promotional pack approval process
Artwork changes could be due to brand changes, regulatory changes, market extension, product extension, a new dieline, etc.
ManageArtworks workflow templates allow reusing a single workflow for multiple purposes. So while the workflow is the same, different templates can have different stakeholders and maybe even skip a few tasks. This provides a lot of flexibility for customers to define their own templates
Workflows implemented in ManageArtworks have automatic audit logs, task assignment, alerts and reminders, real-time status tracking and file attachments with version control
Workflows
Typical workflows implemented for a CPG company include
- New Product Artwork process
- Artwork Change process
- Print Proof approval process
- Promotional pack approval process
Artwork changes could be due to brand changes, regulatory changes, market extension, product extension, a new dieline, etc.
ManageArtworks workflow templates allow reusing a single workflow for multiple purposes. So while the workflow is the same, different templates can have different stakeholders and maybe even skip a few tasks. This provides a lot of flexibility for customers to define their own templates
Workflows implemented in ManageArtworks have automatic audit logs, task assignment, alerts and reminders, real-time status tracking and file attachments with version control
Stakeholders
Being a collaboration system, ManageArtworks brings all stakeholders both internal and external to the same page. The system can be used by all internal department users like Regulatory, Packaging, QA, Marketing, R&D, Legal, etc. and by external stakeholders like print vendors, artwork studios, suppliers and customers. The in-built security in the system makes sure each of these stakeholders (especially external ones) have limited access and only to the data that they are supposed to view or take action on
Artwork Proofing
Artwork proofing is an important task and having the right tools facilitates quick review, fewer iterations and avoids errors. ManageArtworks, with its own set of proprietary proofing tools that are deeply integrated with other functionalities gives an end-to-end solution to its customers
Graphics, Text, Colors and Barcodes can all be inspected and compared across artworks. The measurement tool allows accurate measurement of lengths & areas (e.g. PDP area) and the annotation tools allow users to mark changes on the artwork. The following tools are available in ManageArtworks
- Color Separation – both process colors and spot colors including ink coverage
- Barcode verification and Grading – support for EAN, UPC, QR and 28 other 1D & 2D barcodes
- Font recognition – automatically identify font sizes and font names for each character
- Graphic comparison tool – pixel-to-pixel comparison of two artworks
- Text comparison tool – compares text between two artworks
- Copy Compare tool – compare the copy text with the text in the artwork
- Smart Checklist – automatic regulatory rule checker specifically for the food industry
- Spell check – Multilingual support
ManageArtworks seamlessly integrates all the proofing tools with other features of the product
Read more
Artwork Proofing
Artwork proofing is an important task and having the right tools facilitates quick review, fewer iterations and avoids errors. ManageArtworks, with its own set of proprietary proofing tools that are deeply integrated with other functionalities gives an end-to-end solution to its customers
Graphics, Text, Colors and Barcodes can all be inspected and compared across artworks. The measurement tool allows accurate measurement of lengths & areas (e.g. PDP area) and the annotation tools allow users to mark changes on the artwork. The following tools are available in ManageArtworks
- Color Separation – both process colors and spot colors including ink coverage
- Barcode verification and Grading – support for EAN, UPC, QR and 28 other 1D & 2D barcodes
- Font recognition – automatically identify font sizes and font names for each character
- Graphic comparison tool – pixel-to-pixel comparison of two artworks
- Text comparison tool – compares text between two artworks
- Copy Compare tool – compare the copy text with the text in the artwork
- Smart Checklist – automatic regulatory rule checker specifically for the food industry
- Spell check – Multilingual support
ManageArtworks seamlessly integrates all the proofing tools with other features of the product
Read more
Digital Asset Management (DAM)
All artworks and associated files like dielines, specifications, marketing collaterals, pack shots, images, video and 3D renderings of the product can all be managed in the DAM. Each DAM asset can be searched based on metadata filters. The product pack shots required for eCommerce portals can be served from the DAM itself
Packaging Specifications
Specifications for all types of printed and non-printed components (labels, carton, bottle, cap, etc.) can be created, managed and shared from the ManageArtworks Specification system. The specifications are managed as data and can also be exported as a PDF file for sharing with vendors
Packaging Specifications
Specifications for all types of printed and non-printed components (labels, carton, bottle, cap, etc.) can be created, managed and shared from the ManageArtworks Specification system. The specifications are managed as data and can also be exported as a PDF file for sharing with vendors
Integration
CPG companies have invested significant money and time in implementing line of business applications like SAP or other ERP systems, PLM or PIM systems
ManageArtworks has the capability to integrate with all these systems depending on the need. Here’s a quick view of typical integrations with other systems.
To prevent packaging write-offs, ManageArtworks can fetch artwork inventory from your ERP system and display relevant information to your stakeholders so that decisions can be made based on artwork visions, their effective date and actions to be taken on existing stock. eCommerce portals provide many forms of integration to push both data and images from manufacturers. ManageArtworks supports GDSN and other forms of XML and Excel data to enable this integration